Life and Death: Royal
by TabithaMcGonagall
Summary: After Beau becomes a vampire, Carine tells Royal to leave. His hate for Beau puts them all in danger, even Eleanor. Royal goes on an unexpected journey of redemption and rediscovers his love of family. (Life and Death universe only, a story from Royal's perspective)


Beau is part of the family now and Eleanor keeps telling me that I need to accept it. In fact, everyone in the family besides Beau has been telling me that I need to accept it. But he's just so happy to be a vampire that it is beyond disconcerting. It should be concerning and not just to me. He's barely even a vampire, can we even really call him a vampire when he doesn't have the same insane blood lust that the rest of us have endured? Can a person be half vampire? He did only get a tiny bite on his finger after all. Edythe was shooting eye daggers at me from across the room. A sister who could hear your every thought was infuriating. Particularly as I spent a lot of my time hating her and Beau.

"Edythe needs a break from your thoughts." Eleanor said from the kitchen upstairs. I went to her with such pace that the room blurred past. She sat on a couch in front of the glass wall, stunning and serene.

"I'm trying El. I want to be okay with him being a vampire. Edythe is happy, Beau's happy." I sat down next to her on the sofa and she took my hands in hers.

"I understand, Royal. I really do." She soothed.

"I hate him Eleanor." I admitted. I hated him with such fury that I wished I could turn back time and have been the one to have taken Beau to Arizona and never let him out of my sight. I'd never have given him chance to escape and get attacked by Jules. I should have told him my story when Edythe first brought him to the house. Anything to have stopped him from choosing this endless life over death. He just didn't understand.

Jess entered the room and my emotions calmed.

"We could go hunting, take a break." El suggested, looking uncertain. She knew me better than anyone and even she wasn't sure how to help me with this problem. She could say she understood but really she didn't know how desperately I wished I had gotton to that ballet studio a few seconds sooner so that I could have dried up Beaus blood before Edythe let him decide. How could Edythe live with herself, knowing she had damned Beau to an eternal hell. Saving Eleanor was both the best and worst decision of my life and despite knowing that, Edythe had done the same thing.

"I can't focus on hunting." I replied in an oddly calm tone.

"I could go with you." Jess suggested.

"You can't be my personal happy pill Jess. When I'm in the mood to hunt, I will." Animal blood was so bland in taste it was almost better to not drink at all. I watched Jess leave the room without another word.

"We could take a vacation even. Go visit the Delani clan in Alaska. I know you miss it there." El said quietly, moving closer to me so that I embraced her. It was true that I missed the people there. Not only that but it was so deserted where they lived that would could hunt large game without it being noticeable at all. Heck, we could have hunted people there and no one would have ever noticed.

"How fast can you pack your suitcase?" I kissed her head gently. She smiled.

"Daft question but it depends, how long are we to stay?" El sighed and relaxed onto me.

"A while?" I asked thoughtfully. I only agreed to leave last time because Carine wanted to leave and we stuck with her.

"A week? A year? Ten?" She asked unconcerned. She was curious but I knew she'd go with me even if I told her we would go and never return to the Cullens.

"Until Beau is dead for good? Between his desire to reconnect with his family and the Volturi, it can't be more than a decade or so." A small grin crept onto my features.

"Royal you are such a piece of work." El giggled. She traced her fingers lightly in circles on my palm. "I don't mind though, if you want us to go. Carine might not be too happy but I don't care so long as you're happy."

My phone begun to ring before I could reply.

"Carine?" I answered.

"Would you meet me on the I-10, where the pavement ends." She replied. It was an odd request but it was half way between here and her work, which she was currently at.

"No problem." I replied. Perhaps it'd be a good opportunity to tell her the plan for me and El to go to Alaska. Away from the house of people with Vampire hearing.

"I'll be right here when you get back." Eleanor turned around to kiss me before she let me up. "I'll even start packing the jeep while you're gone." She ginned.

"I love you El."

"I love you too and don't worry, I won't forget to pack your scrunchies. We can't have you running around without your hair perfectly styled." She smiled as she teased me.

"If you bury them in the forest again.."

"I'm never going to live that down am I? I thought you'd find it funny!" I couldn't help but smile back at her and laugh at how cute she was.

"It's a good job I love you more than scrunchies." I left the room and jumped from the window at the top of the stairs. It was both a quicker way to the garage and an easier route to avoid the newbie vampire. I walked past the jeep, the silver Volvo and a newly acquired Lexus which I was not fond of before I got to the bike. Running would be just as quick but it was the middle of the day. I got on the bike and was parked behind the M5 on the I-10 in minutes.

I got in the car beside Carine and waited while she hung up her phone call to Earnest.

"What do you need? Is someone at the hospital suspicious of you again? I don't mind creating distractions but it isn't really a productive thing to do in a hospital." I managed to get the last nurse who got nosy about Carine transferred to another hospital. The details weren't really anything I was proud of.

"Archie had a vision. Several actually." Carine said, looking at me intently.

"Why do I feel like this isn't about problems at work?" I asked.

"It's not. They were about you, Royal. Your anger and hatred is going to lead you to bad places." Carine was serious. It was almost laughable.

"I might want Beau dead but I won't do it myself Carine. I want Edythe to be happy." I tried to guess where this was going.

"There's been some visions of you killing Beau, very few were successful attempts but the future has changed as you decided you no longer wished to kill him yourself. Right now your future has three paths. Going to Alaska with Eleanor which turns into a decade long spiral of hunting humans for the both of you before you return to me, begging forgiveness. The second is staying with us until Beau slips up and a human discovers he is still alive. You tell the Volturi and Beau is killed. This leads to a sequence of events which results in you, Eleanor and Edythe killed too. The third future came about when Archie informed me of the first two options."

"Having a brother who knows the future kind of sucks." I interrupted. "Its toying with a natural cause of events." Something I both did and didn't believe.

"Royal. You need to leave and not return until you are willing to make peace with Beau, and Edythe." Carine's features looked a little pained.

"I told you that we're going to Alaska." I said.

"You need to leave, alone. Anywhere but Alaska." What was she saying?

"I'm not leaving without Eleanor." I scowled at her.

"If you want what is best for Eleanor then you will." Carine asserted.

"You're being ridiculous Carine. I'd never do anything to hurt El." I almost shouted. I took unnecessary breaths to calm down.

"Not intentionally." Tears brimmed my eyes. The thought of Eleanor being hurt by anything I'd done or could do, made my chest tighten painfully. "You trust me, don't you son? I wouldn't tell you to leave alone unless it was a last resort. I love you and want what is best for the whole clan." She pulled me into a hug and I allowed it. How had this conversation spiralled so quickly?

"El will hate me for leaving without her." I sat up and wiped tears from my face.

"Eleanor will be upset but she's as tough as vampires come. And without a single doubt, she'll wait for your return. She'll probably even find a way to be okay about you leaving. I want to build a separate house on the property, I intend to have her help so to keep her busy." I nodded. It was a good idea.

"This is all Beaus fault. We were fine before he came along." My anger spiked suddenly.

"Beau isn't forcing you to make the decisions which have lead to this moment, you are." That did not seem true at all, if he hadn't arrived I wouldn't be so angry to begin with. "I brought you my backpack from work for your clothes. You should start running so that by the time you leave Washington it'll be closer to night fall. You'll have better cover." I realised what she was insinuating. I could get further on foot than using the bike but running at such speeds for such a long time would soon ruin my clothes. They might survive a state or two but past that they didn't stand much of a chance. I'd need to take them off until I stop running. "You need to leave now." Carine said, a little sympathy in her voice. "Head east and don't stop in big cities." I got out of the car and pulled off my top, then my jeans and stuffed them in the back pack making sure my wallet was safely in there too.

"Carine.." I said, pulling on the backpack.

"Try to stay out of trouble Royal." She interrupted.

I ran. I ran as fast as I could. As hard as I could and tried to block out all my thoughts. By the time night fell I was in Lolo National Forest and headed into Montana. By the time the sun rose I was nearly in North Dakota.

I stopped in dense woodland, near a stream, deciding if I should continue running. Stopping to hunt and gather supplies would have been a smart idea but running just felt so good. My mind had been blank and free. Though now I worried about Eleanor. What if she did hate me for leaving? It hadn't been like I'd been given much choice. Every other option led to death and destruction. I could even smell death. Death and waste, as though there had been a genocide. I looked through the woodland but I couldn't see any bodies. Apart from which, I couldn't smell any blood. Perhaps it were old but the bodies had not been properly buried. I began pulling my clothes out of the rucksack to investigate but realised that it were pointless. If the bodies hadn't been found yet they probably weren't going to be. But if I found them and buried them that could implicate myself in something I wasn't already implicated in. What had Carine said? Stay out of trouble.

I shoved the clothes back in the rucksack and took off running towards North Dakota, slower this time. I slowed further as I passed the next town. There were gaggles of children heading into the school, parents going to work, older people doing yoga in the park while a group of parents did a buggy run around the edge. I wished beyond anything that I could have that life with Eleanor. Knowing us, she'd go to work while I brought up our gaggle of kids. We probably wouldn't stop until we had enough for a football team. We'd be so busy with sports and groups and clubs and school that by the time they were all asleep we'd only have a few perfect but precious moments to ourselves. It would be worth it all to have a real family with her.

My phone began to ring and I had to stop to pull it from the rucksack as it had fallen to the bottom. Jessamine appeared on the dial screen.

"Jess." I said, answering the phone. I had stopped in woodland much less dense than before so i sat down on the muddy ground so to make myself less visible.

"Archie told me to call you but now he's having another vision." She said worriedly.

"I can call back when I stop next, I might be in Minnesota by then though." I asked. I was eager to keep going as far away from that stench of death as possible.

"No, did you just make a decision? The vision is about you." Jess insisted.

"I decided to keep running." To not check out the stench and to not bother hunting. I still wasn't much in the mood to bother. My eyes must have been so black.

"I think you need to go back to where you made the decision but don't do anything yet." She paused for a long time.

"Jess." I began. "Is Eleanor okay?" My chest hurt just thinking of the answer.

"Carine calmed her down." More of the sentence hung in the air unfinished. I could hear Archie muttering in the background. I waited, holding the phone to my ear, sat still and silent for several minutes. A rabbit was bounding towards me through the forest. Towards was a strong word, it couldn't see or hear me, it was just headed for wherever its destination may be. Perhaps a rabbit hole. As it hopped happily past, I grabbed it and sunk my fangs into its neck. I slowly drank every drop of blood and took several deep breaths to push back the feeding frenzy which a drop of blood could produce. The rabbits screech had scared away any nearby wildlife and I had no interest in chasing them. "Royal, did you just drink a rabbit while on the phone to me? That is so rude." Jess said agitated. I knew she was only edgy due to her worry about Archie.

"I didn't save you any." I teased, licking my lips.

"I'm going to put Archie on." Jess tossed the phone to him.

"Royal. Royal."

"Archie. I'm here." I puzzled at his panic.

"If you keep running you'll end up with the volturi."

"And somehow that is going to end badly, right?" I asked.

"You dead, definitely. The amount of people you drag down with you is debatable depending on your decisions." He worried. He worried often, knowing the fate of most people around you was not a job to take light heartedly.

"Well, if I can't keep running and I can't go home my only choice is to stop. Is everyone okay if I stop?" I asked. Stopping here seemed like a very odd thing to do. A town full of ordinary people and a monster in the woods. The phone rustled.

"He's having another vision." Jess said quickly. She dropped the phone and I heard her move to Archie's side, reassuring him even though he probably had no idea where she was. His visions could be all consuming at times. I put the phone on loudspeaker and pulled my clothes out. Despite having no need for them except to blend in, not wearing clothes felt very odd. I pulled them on, racked my fingers through my hair and retied the scrunchie. I wished I had somehow thought to bring my hair brush. I left my shoes in the bag. My feet were so muddy that putting them on would feel more wrong than right. I picked up the phone and climbed a nearby tree. I sat comfortably in the nook of a branch with my legs up, watching the towns people go about their lives while I listened to the urgent reassurances of Jessamine to Archie. She was probably calming him with her power and all the while making herself more agitated.

"I can't see it clearly." Archie growled in frustration.

The wildlife was slowly beginning to return to the area and I could smell a large deer to the west. I breathed deeper and got a whiff of the stench of death again. Surely the smell should be attracting larger game.

"Royal. I don't know what will happen if you stay. All I can say for certain is that you probably don't end up dead. Some paths we meet again soon, some far in the future and some not at all." Archie said disheartedly.

"Archie, there's a smell here, should I investigate?" I queried.

"You ask such stupid questions brother. There is no future in which you don't. That's where things get hazy. As usual I suppose you'll be up to something troublesome." I let his words sink in. He was right. There was no doubt in my mind, weather he made me swear not to investigate or not, I would do so. The circumstances were just too odd. "I need to get to school. Summer mentoring program." He seemed happy about it.

"Tell El that I love her." I said quietly, watching an elderly couple walking in the park, hand in hand. The phone went dead and I swung down from the tree. Running back to the last town wouldn't take long at all.

I circled in on the smell, the closer I got the sooner I realised that the smell was coming from a log cabin in a clearing in the woods. I stopped just deep enough in the woods that no human would ever see me, though I had a clear view of the front of the cabin. It was a fair size for a cabin and despite its ideal location not too far from town, it looked abandoned. Perhaps last Halloween or the one before as the front porch was strewn with decorations. There were fake skeletons hanging from the rafters and white sheets over footballs with eyes drawn on to look like ghosts.

In an effort to leave no trace of my presence I ran lightly across the grass and approached the back door which had steps rather than a deck. I stopped breathing to block the stench as it became enough to make a person throw up. I stood still and silent.

"Go away. Go away. Please go away." I heard a quiet voice repeating over and over. It sounded scared rather than demanding as one may expect when trespassing on property. Hesitantly I opened the door. The room was filled with animal carcasses. Mostly small woodland animals and some deer. Not a single one contained a drop of blood though most were rotting and the bugs were innumerable. The lack of blood indicated a vampire but no vampire would leave a pile of rotting carcasses. Nor would they be frightenedly whispering to themselves.

I looked around for a staircase, the voice definitely came from below this floor. All I found was a trapdoor under a rug. Could it be a trap? Well, of course it could be a trap. Right now though, what did I have to lose? Nearly all of my futures led to death. Death I could handle. Though if as I and Edythe believed death for a vampire would either lead to hell or nowhere, I'd rather stick around for as long as possible. Carine believed we would be worthy of redemption. I opened the trap door and the voice below paused before continuing at a frantic pace. I lept down the hole, almost hoping for a fight. This was an irresponsible way for a vampire to live. Unless they got their act together the Volturi would be all over this place.

The scene I took in was not at all something I expected. The room was like a cave, a hollowed out uneven cavern. Taking up half of the space was a lumpy rug which at best guess I predicted was hiding three bodies, drained of blood. Filthy towels and blankets littered the space and in what appeared to be a makeshift nest, inside a broken metal cage sat a small child.

"No. No. No. No." She cried quietly as she rocked back and forth in the nest, her hands over her eyes as though terrified to look up. I was stunned. She was practically a baby, a child vampire? That did not explain why she sitting in her own filth. A vampire keeping a human child? Suddenly she looked up at me with terrifying eyes. They were mostly red yet flecked with green, blue and gold. "Go away from here." She screeched before curling up into a ball in the nest, burying her head in the dirty blankets.

This embodied a fear I never knew I had. Children vampires were forbidden and must be killed. As must the vampires who turned them. Child vampires were incapable of self control and would expose us as a race. And yet here sat a scared little vampire who, if I ignored the carnage in the house, didn't seem much like a vampire at all.

"I'm Royal, what's your name?" I asked tentatively. I moved a little closer, still trying to decipher whether or not the girl was a vampire. I was careful where to place my feet, they were muddy enough already without getting worse.

"It's not safe, you need to leave." She muttered into the blanket.

"I'm a vampire too, not much can hurt me." I said in the hopes it would be reassuring. What on earth I was doing reassuring the child when really I needed to kill her, was beyond me. Yet the thought of killing a child, vampire or otherwise was just incomprehensible. I wouldn't do it. She began crying once more and I watched as she fell asleep. Her breathing evened out and she looked peaceful. Vampires do not sleep or need to breathe and yet she had no heartbeat and drank blood.

Making a decision I knew I would likely regret, I left the cabin, entered the woods and put on my shoes. I walked at a human pace into the nearby town and headed straight to the gas station. I hoped no one would pick up on that I didn't have a car but it was unlikely. I was great at stunning people and if that didn't work, intimidation would. I walked up to the counter and looked quizzically at the woman sat doing a crossword puzzle.

"I'm looking for a rental just out of town." She looked up at me, puzzled.

"This is a gas station, not tourist information." She finally glared up at me and I smiled softly at her. "Though I suppose if I call Danny he may have something for you." She pulled her cell phone out and dialled quickly.

Two hours later I had the keys to a converted stable house outside of town and a generic looking black car which was a lot faster than it appeared. I pulled up to the house and unloaded the bags of shopping from the trunk. I'd driven between three towns before I found all the supplies I required but finally felt that I could go back to the cabin. There was no easy way to fix the cabin. If I were to make a bonfire to clean up the carcasses it would attract people from the town who currently all seemed to avoid the place like the plague due to the smell. I could leave the place as it were or I could burn it to the ground. Both of my latter options required me getting the girl out of the cabin.

I ran there, taking the car could have drawn attention and I wanted to blend in. Any cause for concern could attract people and I had no clue how dangerous the child was. There were definitely bodies in the basement even if it seemed that she were vegetarian. I wanted to bathe before going back but knowing how dirty the cabin was, it seemed like a pointless endeavour.

I leapt down the trapdoor and instantly looked to the cage, where the girl was not. I scanned the room in panic and noticed her by the bodies. She curled up at their far side and only looked up at me when I moved forwards into the cavern.

"I'm sorry I left you but I came back. I want to help you." I said to her. I crouched down hoping she would find me less intimidating if I appeared smaller. Suddenly and with impressive pace she moved like a cat to the cage. I noted as she did that her left leg didn't move at all. It simply hung limply. She curled up in her nest and watched me with big, bug like eyes. "I'm renting a house not far from here, it doesn't have any personal touches but it sure is nice." I told her. I thought she might say something but she was so quiet this time it was disconcerting. She just looked at me intently. "It isn't home. Home is a few states away with the rest of my family but I had to leave. I was supposed to be helping with a new family member but I didn't do a very good job of it." I told her.

"Family." She said quietly. She pointed to the lumpy rug and tears brimmed in her eyes.

"They are your family?" I asked almost in a whisper. She nodded solemnly. I wondered what had happened but I didn't want to press her. There was no telling what a vampire child could do when emotional. I'd heard the stories from Carine of vampire children feeding on villages at a time. "I have two sisters and two brothers, Jessamine and Archie, Edythe and Beau. We have parents of sorts too, Earnest and Carine. Carine changed all of us into vampires when we had no other options, even Eleanor. She is my partner, I've married her many times throughout the years." I smiled a little thinking of them, then worried that I would make the girl sad but she seemed to be listening intently, cuddling the broken remains of an old teddy bear. I racked my brain for something which might coax her to talk to me. "I was born in 1915 in New York but really I'm only eighteen years old. How old are you?" I asked with a curious tone.

"Nearly two." She said quietly.

"How long have you been nearly two?" I asked.

"Twenty." She muttered.

"Years?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes." Her eyes scrunched up in what I assumed to be frustration. "Maybe, twenty."

"Would you tell me how it happened?" I asked, unsure if it was the right move.

"I'm hungry." She said sadly.

"How about we come to a deal? I'll catch you something to eat if you tell me your name." I suggested. She sure didn't look like she stood much chance catching a meal for herself.

"I want real food." She said hopeful. It seemed an odd request but I still wasn't completely convinced of her vampirism so decided not to question it.

"Anything you want." I promised.

"Abigail." She sat up and looked at me assertively. "Fries." She thought for a moment. "Pasta and chocolate pudding."

Forty minutes later, after a trip into town, I sat across from Abigail as pasta slid though her little fingers while she shovelled it into her mouth. I was glad that I had thought to bring wet wipes, on the other hand I wasn't sure she'd be willing to clean herself up, wet wipe or not. I sat patiently as she made her way through the fries and onto chocolate pudding. She struggled with the spoon before giving up to use her hands instead. I considered asking if she needed help but I didn't think she would be comfortable with me getting much closer. She finished chewing and I wondered how all the food had fitted inside her.

"I brought some wipes if you want one." I offered. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand.

"I'm still hungry." She whined. She now sat outside the cage, not more than five feet from me.

"What'll it be? A burger? More pudding? Some wildlife perhaps?" I offered. She looked at me with the most sceptical expression a two year old face could procure.

Taking me completely by surprise, she leapt at me and flung her tiny arms around my neck, sinking her fangs into me. I was so taken aback that I didn't move. I was so scared of hurting her that I didn't move. And I was so curious that I didn't move. A tiny little vampire girl clung to me and suckled my neck like a baby would a bottle. Vampire blood was not particularly tasty and did little to satisfy another vampire. Out of curiosity many years ago Eleanor and I had bitten each other. It was an interesting experience but neither of us had interest in repeating it considering that a vampire bite left a scar on even another vampires skin. When Abigail realised that I wasn't going to fight her off, she relaxed a little and I closed my eyes.

There was a flash in my mind which startled me, then a flicker of white. A scene unveiled itself.

 _Abigail sat crying in her crib, unable to stand the noise any longer, her parents went for a walk without her, hoping she would have settled down by the time they got back. She screeched and wailed until she had forgotten why she was upset in the first place. A strange man and woman with beautiful white skin entered the cabin and Abigail stared at them in confusion. She didn't understand why they were here. She began to cry quietly out of fear as the couple approached. They were Victor and Elisabeth Troyland. They cooed at her and Elisabeth picked her up. Abigail wriggled as much as she could trying to escape her but the lady began rocking her gently back and forth and Abigail was so tired from crying that she fell asleep very quickly._

 _After that she recalled such intense pain that she was unable to stay conscious for many days. When she awoke, she was locked in a cage in a strange large room. Frightened, she sat in the back corner of the cage and watched as the new couple approached. They held a rabbit up to the cage and despite loving bunny rabbits and not wanting to hurt it, her new vampire instincts kicked in and she drained the rabbit of blood. Afterwards, she cried. Her new vampire parents explained to her that she was their child now and she had to stay in a cage for everyone's safety, until she were old enough to understand right and wrong and until she had the strength to resist draining villages of people. Abigail didn't understand. On more than one occasion she escaped her prison and drained the first person she found before her parents caught up with her. By the fourth time this happened, Abigail was twelve and realised that she didn't want to hurt people. They might taste better than animals but their lives had more to them. People who would miss them. After that she never tried to escape again._

 _When Abigail was twenty one, she sat playing with toys in the basement as she was allowed out of the cage. She heard her mother screaming upstairs. There was a horrid smell and many foot falls which she didn't recognise. Torn between hiding and running upstairs, she idled at the bottom of the stairs. She knew never to reveal herself to anyone. As her mother's screams grew and her father's joined in she could no longer take it anymore. She ran up the stairs and into the room, surveying the scene. Her mother's arms were on the floor and her Father was screaming, twisted in an awful manor on the floor. Abigail leapt at one of the tall women hurting her father but the woman grabbed her by her little pony tail and held her off the ground. She screamed, absorbed by the pain and the horrifying scene before her. The woman talked to mother as she moved Abigail onto her side, Abigail wriggled but the woman had strength she did not know could be present in anyone but a vampire, and yet the woman was no vampire. The woman's teeth lengthened and she bit hard on Abigail's left hip then her lower stomach and her leg. Abigail screamed in pain as her stomach and leg burned. The woman threw her back down the basement stairs and slammed the door shut, leaving Abigail alone._

 _Abigail had later discovered that the burning, agonising pain that dulled after months but never truly went away was her vampire body rejecting the werewolf venom from her bite wounds._

I gasped. I'd never heard of a vampire surviving a werewolf bite. It did explain though why Abigail appeared unable to use her left leg.

 _Scared and alone, Abigail decided to find the cabin in the woods where her parents spent the summer that she was taken by her new parents. It never crossed her mind that those parents could be spending the summer there nineteen years later with a sibling she never knew she had. Weak and blood thirsty she didn't stand a chance at holding back._

I realised that the bodies in the room weren't there because she couldn't dispose of them, it was because she wouldn't. She felt that she needed the reminder to not stray away from the cabin, to not let herself get anywhere near a human. A year had passed and every day was a struggle for her, physically and mentally. Part vampire, part werewolf and no one to help her. I shuddered to think of the implications if the Volturi ever found her. The werewolves would have been certain she had died from the venom and her slow death would have been an addition to her parents suffering.

I opened my eyes as Abigail lifted her teeth from my skin. She tried to back away but I held her sides.

"I'll look after you and try to keep you safe if that's what you want but you'd have to try hard too. Staying in control is an absolute must. " I told her.

"Do we.. Do we have to leave?" She asked. My heart ached for her.

"It's not safe here for either of us. It would only take for someone to come investigating the smell to start piecing it together." I said tentatively. She nodded "Is there anything you don't want to leave behind?" She looked at her nest and to the lumpy rug before shaking her head. She looked up at me with watery eyes.

"Can we go to your family?" She asked, hopeful.

"No. I can't go back yet." I replied. Not until I wasn't a risk to anyone. My problems with Beau seemed stupid and fickle after everything that had happened today so far.

"Okay." She worriedly clung to my top. I scowered the room for a clean towel and eventually spotted one that was relatively clean near the trap door drop. I carried Abigail over to the drop and wrapped the towel around her. She wriggled a little but didn't complain.

"Try to stay quiet, we'll be at the house really soon." I jumped up and out of the trap door with her in my arms and ran from the cabin through the woods and into the house. I picked up my bags of supplies which I'd left inside the front door before going to the upstairs bathroom. I sat Abigail down on the floor and turned the bath taps on.

"I don't like water."She whined, realising the bath was for her.

"The house is a rental so I need to keep it as clean as I can." I told her, deciding I shouldn't mention landlord visits for fear of scaring her. She pulled the towel off of herself and begrudgingly pulled off her grimy t-shirt. Seeing as that was all she had been wearing I felt unsure whether to avert my eyes. A silly thought, that despite having the body of a two year old really she was much older. She did speak in a slightly more mature manor. She understood things that no two year old could and yet she was still a two year old by nature. The scars on her stomach, hip and leg looked nasty but were evidently as healed as they ever would be. I turned off the taps and she pulled herself into the bath.

It was three more hours and one crying fit later before I managed to sit in the hallway with the sound of Abigail's soft snores to keep me company. She had sat quietly in the bath for a very long time until I had gotton her completely clean and hadn't even complained during the three times I let the water out only to run more clean. She didn't even argue for very long when I told her that if she was unable to control herself she'd need to wear diapers. She quickly realised that I wasn't going to budge on the matter, though at her insistence I did let her try to put it on herself before helping her. Only when she realised that the cotton onesie I produced meant I was trying to get her ready for bed did she start really crying. It turned out, she did not like being told it was time for bed and cried insistently that she was old enough to not have a bed time. By the time she had had some food and I had set up her crib at human speed, she was already falling asleep.

I took out my phone and dialled Archie.

"Royal? I've been worried." He said, sighing with relief.

"You will not believe the day I've had."

"Your future is so hazy you would not believe."

"I really don't doubt it brother." I replied, smiling to myself yet surprised he hadn't seen Abigail.

"What have you done?" He asked, curiously.

"You would not believe me if I told you. I'm alright though. I'll be staying where I am for a while, I rented a house and bought a car."

"Oh I know about those. The credit card company called here to verify your purchases." I laughed. Typical, they had my number on file. "Carine authorised them."

"Thank her for me." I listened as Abigail turned over in her sleep. "I need some help Archie. How can I burn down a house without the fire spreading to the woodland?"

I checked on Abigail every half hour while I watched the cabin burn to the ground. Only when I was completely sure that everything inside had burned to ash and the fire was calming did I go back to the house and call local authorities to report to them that I could see smoke in that direction.

When Abigail did wake up, she cried. As soon as I entered the room she was in though her crying ceased and she looked at me expectantly. As I approached her crib my phone rang. Unsure exactly what to do, I picked her up before answering the phone.

"Carine."

"Royal, you need to come home." She said urgently.

"I only left two days ago. I'm busy here." I carried Abigail downstairs.

"I'm hungry." She said quietly.

"Royal, something has attracted the Volturi's attention, they'll be there by tonight. Cover your steps and come home." Abigail whined and started to cry. "Royal, what is going on?"

"Shh, Abigail." She tried to bite my hand. "No. Stop that right now." Her cries became harder and I felt a little in over my head. I sat her down in the middle of the table and found a tub of cheesy pasta in the fridge which I opened and placed in front of her. Abigail scowled tearfully at me before taking a handful of pasta.

"Royal." Carine said insistently. "Tell me everything right now."

"Mom. Just calm down." I said frustrated. Abigail was getting cheese all over her onesie and the Volturi were coming.

" Archie's unconscious, Jess is a mess. Eleanor is threatening to come get you. Earnest is trying to stop her. Beau is having a meltdown over missing his parents and Edythe is trying to help him while worrying about you and Archie and I have someone in surgery waiting for a heart transplant and the only other person who can do it has a sickness bug. So, sure Royal, I'll calm down." I took a deep unnecessary breath. Sometimes I didn't know how Carine kept it together.

"I will tie up loose ends here but if I'm coming home, Abigail is coming with me." I said trying to be reasonable while watching Abigail wipe cheese in her hair.

"Do I want to know who Abigail is?" She asked, taking a deep breath herself.

"No." I said perhaps a little too quickly.

"Make this air tight Royal. If the Volturi see the slightest sign that you've been there it'll be bad for all of us."

"I will. Don't worry about me." I tried to reassure her.

"Call Eleanor." Carine hung up. Abigail burped.

I bathed her quickly, changed her and somehow convinced her to let me buckle her into the car seat. Then I cleared the house of any traces of our presence. Drove the car onto the road and went back up the hill covering the tire tracks. I'd bought the car under a different name and the house would easily be covered up. I drove to the gas station to buy snacks for Abigail and convinced the woman at the counter that she'd never seen me before. I got back to the car.

"Hurry up hurry up, they all smell so good." Abigail was starting to panic as the streets which were moments ago deserted filled with children going to school.

"We're going." I dumped the bags on the seat beside me and swerved into the road as quickly as I could. "Abigail, do you want to hear some more about my family? That's where we're headed, to my family in Washington."

"Okay." She said, pinching her nose as hard as she could and keeping her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"Carine was the first of us to become a vampire. She's compassionate and caring and she spent many years alone before she saved Earnest. Earnest has a tragic past but he fell in love with Carine quickly and when she saved Edythe and then saved me he took to a fatherly role like a duck to water. I had a lot of problems, heck I still do but I was worse back then. I struggled with what had happened to me and the things I'd done but they were both there for me, Carine and Earnest." I looked back to check on her and she had become more relaxed, we were long out of town and away from such strong temptation.

"Can I have the slushie you bought?" She pointed to the drink in the top of the bag. I passed it back to her.

"If you think you're going to spill it say something. I'm thinking of keeping the car." She sucked the straw happily resting the cup on her lap. "Okay, so next came Eleanor, I found her dying after a bear attacked her and Carine bit her for me."

"What.. What if she doesn't like me?" Abigail's brow furrowed.

"Eleanor? She'll like you, don't worry about that. She's easy going, full of love and stronger than any vampire I've ever met, physically at least." She seemed less tense than she was and went back to her slushie. "Archie and Jessamine found us later. Archie knew all along that they would find us yet he waited patiently until it was time. Carine welcomed them into our lives and Archie greeted us like old friends. He has visions of the future so he knew what would happen."

"Did he know about me?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. Not everything is clear because people change their minds all the time, there are always other outcomes." I checked to see she was satisfied with my answer and it seemed she was. The slushie cup was empty and she looked cosy in the car seat with a new fluffy blanket over her. "Beau joined our family this spring. He was dying, having been bitten by a rival vampire so he had the choice, die or join us. He picked joining us." I looked back again to see Abigail asleep. I realised that I no longer assumed that becoming a vampire had been Beau's plan all along. To him, being a vampire was a method of survival, he probably didn't even consider that it could be a fate worse than death. Who really knew if Carine's theory of redemption was true or if we really were all doomed. It was a reckless thing to do and yet a little logical too.

I dialled Eleanor.

"Royal?"

"Are you mad?" I asked her.

"A little bit." She admitted.

"I'm coming home." She sighed in relief. "I'm bringing a surprise too."

"I love you so much, hurry home Royal."

"I love you too El." The phone went dead and I smiled, she wouldn't be mad for long.

I turned on the satnav and waited as it brought up a destination time. One thousand one hundred and two miles to go, just over seventeen hours. I hoped the baby vampire werewolf hybrid in the backseat would sleep for most of the drive but I expected that I'd be sorely let down in my hopes.

So it turns out, a person can be half vampire after all.

 _A/N - Let me know in the reviews if you would want to read more and subscribe to me as an author. If I write more it will be as a separate story. There may be some more Life and Death stories in the future too! Thanks for reading! R x_


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